Club Over Country? Any Day.

Football is a strange sport. The fans are never pleased, the players are overpaid, and the fans swear endlessly at each other. Yet, football,or the ever so cringy 'soccer', is undoubtedly the best sport in the world.

Take my side, Crystal Palace, for instance. Palace, unusually in the limelight after a minor FA Cup run and financial problems, were put into administration a couple of weeks back. Now, understandably I was devastated at how awful this first seemed, and quite frankly still seems, but the club has overcome Premier League Wolves in the FA Cup, and beat struggling Peterboro and Scunny in the Championship. The sale of Victor Moses seems not to have affected the players with Neil Danns playing out of his skin, and Danny Butterfield scoring the third fastest hat trick in FA Cup history. The fans are supportive and attendances haven't dropped. I fully expect a full house tomorrow against high-flying Aston Villa. This just about epitomises the charm of the sport for me. The players haven't been consistently paid, yet they deliver good performances, even against Newcastle when we lost 2-0. Imagine if you hadn't been paid at work, would you perform as well? Didn't think so. But these players have. If only everyone in the sport was like this..

Now, I don't want to go over the endless problems with football, except recent talking points. And no, I'm not going to talk about John Terrys private life. Instead I am going to look at Rio Ferdinand, Englands new captain.

Who would have thought 7 years ago, yes 7, when he failed to attend a drugs test (how can you forget such a thing, dozy Peckham lad!) he would be leading England out at the World Cup in 2010? Well, probably will be. Unless he starts shagging Wes Browns bird, of course. If he has a bird. Come to think of it, I doubt he does, being ginger and all that. I'm joking, of course. Anyway I don't like the fact that a player such as Ferdinand will lead our country out against the USA in the summer. Hasn't had the best season, forgetting the fact he got banned for 4 games for elbowing Hulls Craig Fagan, and was shown up in hs last few performances for England. So, why is he leading our country out? I say our with a pinch of salt. We are awful.

Our number 1 is Calamity James, although admittedly he had a good game for cash-strapped Pompey today against their South Coast rivals 'Soton'. Our back four consists of a druggie, a cheat and a greedy git. (Alright so I've mentioned JT twice now, no more). Our midfield has no cohesion to it, and apart from Citys Gareth Barry, no player I particularly like. And up front Rooney is very good, yes, but we have no one to partner him that is good enough. And this is just the first eleven. Our squad is hollow. I feel no pride. No hope, no glory.

Yet there is Neil Warnock, fighting for a club he feels no particular affection for; any big name manager would view it as a job. This man sees it as a challenge.

And this is why I will always put Palace above England.